Zonduo Technology has introduced a free journal quartile calculator intended to help researchers estimate whether a journal falls within Q1, Q2, Q3 or Q4 based on its ranking within a subject category.
The tool accepts a journal’s position and the number of titles in its category, then displays the calculated quartile boundaries. According to the company, researchers can use it without registering or paying a subscription. It is available at zonduo.com/what-are-the-q1-q2-q3-q4-ranking-quartiles.php.
Understanding Quartile Rankings
Journal quartiles divide the ranked titles in a subject category into four groups. In a category of 100 journals, the boundaries fall at ranks 1 to 25, 26 to 50, 51 to 75 and 76 to 100. A journal placed 26th therefore sits just outside the first quartile under a straightforward rank-based calculation.
Classifications can vary by subject, database and reporting year, and published designations may differ where providers apply their methodologies or account for tied positions. Zonduo says the calculator is intended to explain the underlying arithmetic rather than replace authoritative journal records.
Where Quartile Checks Commonly Go Wrong
– A single journal may hold different quartiles in different subject categories, and a journal’s own website will often display the more favourable designation.
– Quartile assignments are reviewed annually, so a journal checked eighteen months earlier may since have moved between bands.
– A title described as indexed in Web of Science may sit in the Emerging Sources Citation Index rather than SSCI or SCIE, a distinction some universities treat differently.
SCImago Journal Rank publishes the category rankings from which quartiles are derived, while Clarivate’s Master Journal List indicates which Web of Science index a title appears in. Both are free to search.
A Companion Thesis Planning Resource
Zonduo has also published a free thesis chapterisation planning sheet setting out possible chapter structures, indicative word allocations and discussion points for scholars preparing a plan with their supervisors. It can be downloaded from the company’s PhD thesis writing services page. Suggested structures remain subject to each university’s requirements and to doctoral committee decisions.
The company notes that India’s University Grants Commission regulations issued in 2022 removed a nationwide requirement to publish a research paper before submitting a doctoral thesis, although institutions may maintain their own rules. Neither resource establishes journal eligibility, guarantees publication or substitutes for academic supervision.
About Zonduo Technology
Established in 2020, Zonduo Technology is a research support business based in Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, working with doctoral scholars across India and internationally. Its stated services include research planning, manuscript preparation, statistical analysis and publication guidance. The thesis planning sheet and other free resources are available on the company’s website.
For more information, visit: https://zonduo.com/